1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector for a sheet-like connection member such as a flexible printed circuit or cable (FPC), a flexible flat cable (FFC) and so forth. All of these cables and circuit hereafter will be generally referred to as “FPC” for simplification.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional FPC connector generally includes a plurality of terminals each comprising a contact beam provided with a contact portion adapted for contacting an FPC and a pivot beam extending substantially parallel to and opposed to the contact beam, a housing adapted for holding the terminals and comprising opposite lower and upper walls defining a cavity therebetween wherein the lower wall protruding forwardly beyond the upper wall along a horizontal direction, and a pivoting actuator pivotably assembled on free ends of the pivot beams. The terminals are arranged in the housing in a side-by-side fashion, and each terminal has the contact beam thereof fixed in the lower wall of the housing and has the pivot beam thereof partly fixed in the upper wall of the housing, that is, the rear section of the pivot beam fixed in the upper wall and the front section of the pivot beam projected beyond the upper wall as a cantilever with no support. The front section of the pivot beam is provided with a concave portion for engaging with the actuator. The actuator is provided with cam portions disposed between every two adjacent pivot beams and shaft portions located between and joining every two adjacent cam portions. The shaft portions are respectively pivotably received in the concave portions of the pivot beams. Via engagement of the shaft portions of the actuator and the pivot beams of the terminals, the actuator is pivotable between an open position where an FPC can be inserted into the housing with zero-insertion-force and a closed position where the FPC is urged by the cam portions so as to connect with the contact portions of the contact beams. Such kind of FPC connectors can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,893,288, 6,755,682 and 6,099,346.
However, the front sections of the pivot beams projected as cantilevers without any support are relatively weaker and apt to deform during assembly and operation of the actuator. Otherwise, the shaft portions each disposed between and joining two cam portions are breakable especially once being inadvertently struck during operation of the actuator. Therefore, it is desired to have a new FPC connector in which pivot beams are well supported and thereby are well strengthened.